Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

People
on the Move

N° 104, August 2007

Interreligious Dialogue and
Catholic Higher Education from a Migration PERSPECTIVE*

Archbishop
Agostino MARCHETTO

Secretary

Pontifical
Council for the Pastoral Care

of Migrants and
Itinerant People

Migrations
are one of the most complex challenges facing our world today. The
inevitable changes brought about in society by the arrival of immigrants
of a different ethnic origin are therefore a matter of public debate. In
fact the migration question is high up on the international list of such
matters. International migrants worldwide are estimated to number some
190,600,000, of whom 49% are women. The biggest concentration of
migrants, some 60% of the total, is to be found in the industrialised
countries. It is estimated that between 10% and 15% of these are
illegal, while almost half are economically active, working and earning.
Among migrants, there are also those who are forced to migrate
(refugees) and IDPs.

Then there is
the matter of international students, about 2 million in the world (half
a million in the United States).

Our work
consists in discerning facts and aspects of migration that will help us
understand better the phenomenon so as to interpret this “sign of the
times”[1]in a Christian light and offer our pastoral service to the world
of human mobility. Migrations have always been at the centre of the
Church’s care[2].
Initiatives of many kinds show that the Church has carefully followed
developments in this changeable sector and has been actively engaged,
especially pastorally but also in the purely social and humanitarian
field, to ensure that foreigners should be fully accepted and integrated
into society. The Church’s ultimate aim is an authentic communion with
respect for legitimate diversities and with no intent of proselytism in
the negative sense attached to the term today. In any event, for
immigrants, too, rights go hand in hand with duties.

The recent
activity of the Holy See shows careful attention to the continuous
changes in the phenomenon of mobility and to the different requirements
of people today. The aim is “to respond especially to the new spiritual
and pastoral needs of migrants” in “an ecumenical and interreligious
vision of the phenomenon because migrants now include Christians not in
full communion with the catholic Church and growing numbers of persons
of other religions, in particular Moslems” (Erga migrantes caritas
Christi – EMCC – No. 3)[3].

A field in
which the Church is constantly committed at various levels especially
pastorally is that of basic human rights, which are valid for migrants
too. Specific initiatives and Messages of the Holy Father, various
activities to stir the conscience of international organisations and the
governments of migrants’ home countries, their temporary residence or
their host countries all form part of the Church’s strategy. In this the
sacredness of the human person[4],
especially when weak and marginalised, remains central. This has led to
“important developments in the realms of theology and pastoral work,
namely: the centrality of the person and the defence of the rights of
migrants, men or women, and of their children; the ecclesial and
missionary dimension of migrations; the revaluation of the lay
apostolate and the value of different cultures in the work of
evangelisation; the safeguarding and appreciation of minorities even
within the Church itself; the importance of dialogue both within the
sphere of the Church and with others outside it; the specific
contribution of emigration to world peace” (EMCC No. 27). For
this reason the Church is extremely anxious to welcome all migrants and
accompany them pastorally, especially when the influx of legal migrants
is accompanied by illegal migrants who are a source of worry and are
quite often criminalised. Moreover the presence of unscrupulous
evil-doers, speculating on human tragedy and encouraging human slave
trading, increases xenophobia and sometimes gives rise to racialism (cf.
EMCC Nos. 29 and 41).

The
Instruction Erga migrantes caritas Christi makes suitable
proposals for projects consonant with the lives of migrants. With regard
to their reception it distinguishes between “help in general
(immediate short-term reception), real reception (longer-term
projects) and integration (a long-term objective to be followed
up constantly)” (No. 42). In the last named case, an important question
is looked at and the difficult concept of how to integrate migrants in
the society of the host country is examined in a new light: the idea of
assimilation is rejected in favour of meeting and legitimate cultural
exchange. In fact the Instruction insists on the creation of
intercultural societies with their component elements capable of
interacting and enriching each other, which goes beyond a multicultural
concept limited to a mere juxtaposition of different cultures[5].

Dialogue,
especially intercultural and interreligious dialogue, is the Church’s
mission today because “in recent years the presence of immigrants of
other religions in traditionally Christian countries has become more and
more marked” (EMCC No. 59). The great diversity of their cultural
and religious origins poses new challenges and new outlooks, giving
dialogue a central place in the pastoral care of migrants. The Church is
called to develop “a dialogue that must be practised in the conviction
that the Church is the ordinary way of salvation and that it alone
possesses the full ness of the means of salvation” (ibid.). At the
same time “everything possible must be done to help migrants of other
religions so that they do not lose the transcendent dimension of life” (ibid.).

In the matter
of human mobility the Church offers its help to all, irrespective of race
or religion, respecting in all the inalienable dignity of the human
person created in the image of God and redeemed by the Blood of Christ.
To dialogue with others “requires that the catholic communities
welcoming them should be all the more aware of their own identity,
verify their faith in Christ, know well what their faith teaches,
rediscover their missionary calling and therefore commit themselves to
bear witness to Jesus the Lord and His gospel. This is... the
prerequisite for conducting a sincere dialogue that is open, respects
all, but is neither ingenuous nor ill equipped” (EMCC No. 60)[6].

Certain
values are common to both the Christian faith and other beliefs. But it
must be borne in mind that “beside these convergences there are also
divergences, some of which have to do with the legitimate acquisitions
of modern times” (EMCC No. 66). For immigrants therefore the
first step they must take is to respect the laws and values of their
host society, including its religious values, otherwise it becomes
meaningless to talk of integration. The Church for its part is called to
live its identity to the full; it must not fail to bear witness,
including the “respectful proclamation” of its faith (cf. EMCC
No. 9). Finally, another thing to be remembered is the important
principle of reciprocity[7],
“understood not as a mere give-and-take attitude but as a relationship
based on mutual respect and on justice in juridical and religious
dealings. Reciprocity is also an attitude of the heart and the spirit
that enables us to live together everywhere with equal rights and
duties. A healthy reciprocity urges us to become an ‘advocate’ for the
rights of minorities when our own religious community forms the
majority. This reminds us of the numerous Christian migrants in
countries where the majority of the population is not Christian and in
which the right of freedom of religion is severely restricted or
suppressed” (EMCC No. 64).

It remains
true, however, that solidarity, cooperation, interdependence among
nations and the just distribution of the goods of the earth all indicate
the vital need to work with determination especially in those countries
where migrations originate so as to remove the inequalities that lead
individuals or populations to abandon their own natural and cultural
environment (cf. EMCC Nos. 4; 8-9; 39-43). For its part the
Church never ceases to encourage all, but in particular Christian
communities, to be open and welcoming to others including migrants. The
Church affirms that “in spite of the repeated failure of human projects,
even noble projects, Christians, stirred by the phenomenon of mobility,
are aware of their calling to be always and repeatedly a sign of
fraternity and communion in the world, showing respect for differences
and solidarity in their meeting with others” (EMCC No. 102).

Finally it
must be recognised that migration is a process in constant evolution,
that it will continue to be present as society develops and will
transform our world into an intercultural world in which dialogue,
including dialogue in the ecumenical and interreligious fields, will
enable us to learn to live with our legitimate diversities.

With the help
of the background I have sketched it will not be difficult for you to
single out the points of contact with “Catholic Higher Education”,
bearing in mind especially international students[8],
but not only these.

Here there is
ample room for study and research especially by catholic universities
and, I would say, by colleges and also seminaries. I would also draw
attention to letters addressed by our Pontifical Council in conjunction
with other offices of the Roman Curia to the Bishops of the Oriental
Catholic Churches and to Diocesan Ordinaries on the pastoral care of
human mobility, to the superiors and general superiors of the institutes
of consecrated life, the societies of apostolic life and the secular
institutes, to Diocesan Bishops and the rectors of seminaries, to the
heads and members of Church movements and lay associations[9].

In conclusion
I would say that today “Catholic Higher Education”, while respecting the
specific role of all others, cannot and must not fail to play its part
in the sector of human mobility and in the specific pastoral care
pertaining to that field.

*
Address given at the Luncheon session organised by the Lay
Centre at Foyer Unitas Rome, 20/06/2007

[1]
Cf. Benedict XVI,
Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2006: Oss.
Rom. 254 (29.10.2005), p. 4;
A. Marchetto,
“Migrations: a sign of the times”: published by the
Pontifical Council for
the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People,
The Church’s care for migrants (Quaderni Universitari, Part
I), Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2005, pp. 28-40.

[2]
To take the last century only: With prophetic intuition
Pius XII wrote his
Apostolic Constitution Exsul Familia (AAS XLIV
[1952] 649-704), considered the Magna Charta of the Church’s
thought on migrations. Later
Paul VI,
continuing and practising the teaching of the Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council, wrote the Motu Proprio Pastoralis
Migratorum Cura (AAS LXI [1969] 601-603),
promulgating the Instruction of the Congregation for Bishops
De Pastorali Migratorum Cura (AAS LXI [1969]
614-643). Then, in 1978, the
Pontifical Commission for
the Pastoral Care of Migration and Tourism addressed a
circular letter to the Episcopal Conferences The Church and
Human Mobility (AAS LXX [1978] 357-378). Cfr. our
Instruction Erga migrantes caritas Christi, Nos. 19-33,
see note 3 ; Pontifical
Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People
(editor), The Church’s care for migrants (Quaderni
Universitari Part I), Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City
2005, A. Marchetto,
“The Church of the Council and pastoral care of welcome”:
People on the Move XXXVIII (102, 2006), pp. 131-145.

[3]
In 2004 the Pontifical
Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People
published the Instruction Erga migrantes caritas Christi:
AAS XCVI (2004) 762-822 and People on the Move
XXXVI (95, 2004) and the website:
www.vatican.va/roman curia/pontifical
councils/migrants. See also the comments on the Instruction in
People on the Move XXXVII (98, 2005), pp. 23-125,
especially on the topics of ecumenism and the interreligious
dialogue, pp. 45-63.

[4]
See for example the Pontifical Message for the World Day of
Peace 2007 on “The human person, the heart of peace”: Oss. Rom.
146 (44.429 – 13.12.2006), pp. 4-5.

[5]
The topics of this important chapter in the pastoral care of
human mobility are dealt with in Migranti e pastorale
d’accoglienza, edited by the
Pontifical Council for
the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (Quaderni
Universitari, Part II), Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City
2006.

[6]
Cf. The minutes of the XVII Plenary Session of our Pontifical
Council held from 15 to 17 May 2006 on the subject of “Migration
and movement from and to countries of Islamic majority”:
People on the Move XXXVIII (101 Suppl, 2006). For the
interreligious dialogue see in particular pp. 187-224. No. 11 of
the conclusions and recommendations is of special interest: “It
was moreover seen how important it is to distinguish what these
societies can or cannot tolerate in Islamic culture, what must
be respected or shared in relation to the faithful of other
religions (see EMCC 65 and 66), so as to be able to give
indications to politicians too for drawing up civil legislation
that will respect the competence of all”: ibid. p. 43.

[7]
Benedict XVI, too, has made reference to this. See People on
the Move XXXVIII (101 Suppl., 2006), p. 5.